South Korea defeated the Czech Republic 3-0 on Saturday within the first of their two exhibition baseball video games scheduled in Seoul.
Seven pitchers mixed to carry the Czechs to a few singles, as South Korea held on after scoring a few early runs earlier than a sellout crowd of 16,100 at Gocheok Sky Dome.
The groups will return at it at 2 p.m. Sunday on the dome.
Made up of younger up-and-coming stars and established veterans within the Korea Baseball Group (KBO), South Korea opened the scoring within the backside first. Kim Ju-won drew a leadoff stroll from Jan Novak and superior to second on a wild pitch.
A flyout pushed Kim to 3rd, and Tune Sung-mun drove him residence with a single to proper area.
South Korea doubled its lead within the backside second. Han Dong-hee opened the proceedings with a double, and Park Hae-min’s sacrifice bunt moved him to 3rd.
Choi Jae-hoon then hit a fly to shallow middle, and Han beat the throw from middle fielder Marek Chlup to make it a 2-0 recreation for the house workforce.
South Korea, although, didn’t construct on its early momentum. The workforce managed only one hit between the third inning and the seventh inning — a third-inning single by Ahn Hyun-min — and couldn’t capitalize on 4 walks issued by the Czech pitchers throughout that stretch.
Kim Younger-woong ended the dry spell with a two-out single within the eighth, and his pinch runner, Shin Min-jae, scored South Korea’s third run on Lee Jae-won’s double.
Lee, nevertheless, was tagged out to finish the inning whereas making an attempt to take third after a relay throw.
South Korean starter Gwak Been labored two hitless innings whereas hanging out 4 of the seven batters he confronted. The proper-hander touched 156 kilometers per hour together with his four-seam fastball.
Lefty Kim Keon-woo adopted Gwak with two hitless frames as nicely, and he additionally struck out 4 batters. Proper-hander Choi Jun-yong struck out the aspect within the fifth inning.
Willie Escala obtained the Czech Republic’s first hit with a single off new pitcher Lee Ho-sung to start the sixth, however the South Korean reliever retired the subsequent three batters to maintain the Europeans off the board.
Lee Ro-un pitched round a two-out single within the seventh, earlier than Kim Taek-yeon punched out all three batters he confronted within the eighth.
Jo Byeong-hyeon pitched a scoreless ninth to lock down the win, although the final two Czech hitters, Martin Cervinka and Jan Pospisil, made him throw 22 pitches.
These video games are a part of the Ok-Baseball Sequence organized by the KBO. It was launched final 12 months to present the nationwide workforce an opportunity to compete towards different international locations in the course of the KBO offseason.
